THESE days, Rod Nazario, who likes to call himself the ?former business manager? of Manny Pacquiao, has time to relax.
?I do not have too much on my mind anymore. I have time to relax. Manny wants to be the boss, so let him be the boss,? said Nazario Wednesday in a telephone interview from his Wild Card gym in Para?aque City.
Although he and his California-based son Roberto were not named in the suit initiated by Pacquiao through his new management team led by the American Shelly Finkel, Nazario maintained that he had not shortchanged the boxer.
With famous lawyer Judd Burstein as the boxer?s head counsel, Pacquiao sued American promoter Murad Muhammad for failing to provide the former with ?disclosures? under Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act.
The suit alleges that PacMan has huge tax arrears and other bills to pay because Murad withheld certain information from him, while diverting other monies that were meant for the Filipino prizefighter.
Curiously, the suit does not mention anything about the pay-per-view income that Pacquiao insists that he should have gotten when he fought Erik Morales on March 19.
This, he said, was the last straw that prompted him to ditch Murad.
The fight grossed $18 million (P972 million) on PPV after gaining 375,000 customers, of which Manny said he should have been entitled to at least $4 million (P216 million)?the same cut that Morales received from American co-promoter Bob Arum.
Nazario said: ?I can count account for every dollar and cent in income taxes from all of Manny?s fights in the US. We have all the checks and receipts from his bouts in Texas, Las Vegas and California.?
?My son, Roberto, has all the papers,? he added.
Since the suit was filed, Nazario said, he has not heard from Murad ?because he probably thinks I am siding with Pacquiao since I was not named in the suit.?
But a source, who declined to be identified, said the American promoter, who fondly calls Nazario ?Pops,? bore no hard feelings against him.
Also a boxing promoter with more than four decades in the professional ring business, Nazario said the last time he and Murad talked, he told the promoter he would not have anything to do with Pacquiao?s next two fights.
Under the new three-fight deal Pacquiao signed with Murad, Nazario is entitled to a 10-percent share of the fighter?s purse, including the two remaining ones.
?But I stand on my earlier word. As long as he remains with his new management team, I won?t have anything to do with him. He can have the 10 percent?give it to his children and their education,? Nazario said.
Nazario, who began handling Pacquiao?s career nearly a decade ago, was concerned by the way the boxer has been squandering his earnings on the pool table and, lately, in the cockpit.
Pacquiao was in Cebu Wednesday to pit his roosters in a 5-cock derby, where the betting could easily run into millions.
?The last time he competed he boasted that he lost P3 million. I have been advising him not to bet heavily, just in the thousands of pesos, but he refuses to listen,? Nazario said.
The only link that he now has with Pacquiao is through the boxer?s younger boxing brother, Bobby, who has retained his services as manager.
He also has a new find, Eden Samsona, 16, who fights in the 112-pound division and has a record of six wins in as many matches.
Like Pacquiao, Sonsona is a native of General Santos City, but Nazario hopes he will have lesser headaches with his new ward.
